Oklahoma Vintage Guitar Blog

Wow! What a day.  We have recently gotten an order of 100 G&L Electric Guitars and Basses in from California.  We are in the process of getting all the photographs done and all the listings up. It is a big job.  With G&L USA Guitars each one is different.  They are all custom made to specs and can have a host of options such as Birdseye Maple Neck and Body Binding, or Double Body Binding and a myriad of different neck sizes and shapes and feels.  When we take pictures and write an ad to list on the OklahomaVintageGuitar.com site for a G&L USA piece it is for one piece and one piece only.  When we do an ad for a tuner or an AMP the same listing might be able to sell hundreds of items that are all alike but G&L guitars are so unique that each one only gets one sale and one sale only.  While this is a big job it is also a great deal of fun.  With 100 new pieces coming in the door all in boxes, it is like Christmas for about 3 days while we open all of them and get them photographed and ready to sell.  Each one has such a different personality it is fun to hold and play each one as it first comes out of its case.

Anyone who really knows me knows I am a strange duck when it comes to my guitar collection.  I am really really into both acoustic guitars and electric guitars.  However, when it comes to vintage verses new pieces my tastes run quite different.  I grew up in the 50s and 60s and started playing in 1966 at the age of 10.  I really loved the old Fender electric guitars of the era and those were the first serious guitars in my life and in my collection.  I have a pile of old Tele’s and Strats from the 50s and 60s and I’m pretty much crazy about anything Leo Fender built from 1950 to Dec 31, 1964 when he sold the company to CBS.  For this reason my vintage collection is really heavy on the electric side and rather light on the Acoustic Side.  My friends say that light is not the word to use to describe any of my group of instruments, but it heavier on the electric side with basses and guitars than on the acoustic side.  When it comes to new instruments, however, I am much more into the acoustic instruments and I have been blessed with loving the instruments and the music and can really find some great things about almost any brand from anywhere. 

On another day I’ll write about why I think Martin is building the best instruments today of their 175 year history, but I do think it is true and I have some from all the great eras of the past 100 years.  So, Bobby likes old electrics and new acoustics.  I suppose one could say this true, with few exceptions. One of the reasons for this is the biggest issue of all on a guitar, even before tone and that is ACTION.  Old electrics almost always have a great action, or it can be made great rather quickly and easily.  Old acoustics almost always have an action high enough to run a large cat under the strings at the 12^th fret without touching the fingerboard or the strings.  What difference does it make if something has awesome tone, if you need an orthopedic surgeon for hand work after you play it for a few minutes.  Feel and tone are both super important but both must be present for me to get excited about a piece.  This is why I am all over the new Martin guitars and Gibson and Taylor also.  Taylors have a great neck and super feel, and the action can be so easily set to almost play itself.  One of the reasons I love the new Martins is because the necks are so improved in the last 25 years and they can be set to play easily and to my ear they have an awesome tone.  Gibsons are fun and pretty and sound good and they can be set to play really nice, and back to the pretty, they are just so interesting and yes, ornate and pretty.

At this point I’ll stir up a hornets nest and say, Ovations are also among my favorite pieces.  Wait, wait, just a minute, before you who are of the opinion that a guitar must be made in PA or CA for it to really have its roots in Heaven, let me caution you not to narrow your vision so much that you miss some of the finest pieces in both tonality and playability of all time.  I’ll go out on a limb right now and say it.  Here it comes.  But before I do, remember I am a guy who owns 3000 guitars at this very moment and I have been collecting and playing for over 40 years.  OK, I’ll say it.  The very best sounding guitar I have ever had in my hands is and OVATION.  What!!!!  You now say, I just lost all my credibility as a musician.  Well you just ask anyone who played one of Charlie Kaman’s old #47 Adamas guitars and they will either have to admit it or lie to you because their sawdust friends are present.  By the way, the body of the old #47 didn’t have an ounce of wood in it.  My whole point is that we should be careful not to box ourselves into a brand or a style of instrument and miss out on something that we could use to greatly expand our music.